know; and, really, wearing your beaver up, like Hamlet's uncle, I
altogether took you for a dun. For I am a victim of a very
remarkable monomania. There are in this place wretched beings
calling themselves tradesmen, who labour under the impression that I
owe them what they facetiously term little bills; and though I have
frequently assured their messengers, who are kind enough
to come here to inquire for Mr. Larkyns, that that unfortunate
gentleman has been obliged to hide himself from persecution in a
convent abroad, yet the wretches still hammer at my oak, and disturb
my peace of mind. But bring yourself to an anchor, old fellow! This
man is Smalls; a capital fellow, whose chief merit consists in his
devotion to literature; indeed, he reads so hard that he is called a
~fast~ man. Smalls! let me introduce my friend Verdant Green, a
freshman, - ahem! - and the proprietor, I believe, of your old rooms."

Our hero made a profound bow to Mr. Smalls, who returned it with
great gravity, and said he "had great pleasure in forming the
acquaintance of a freshman like Mr. Verdant Green;" which was
doubtless quite true; and he then evinced his devotion to literature
by continuing the perusal of one of those


[64 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

vivid and refined accounts of "a rattling set-to between Nobby Buffer
and Hammer Sykes," for which ~Tintinnabulum's Life~ is so justly
famous.

"I heard from my governor," said Mr. Larkyns, "that you were coming
up; and in the course of the morning I should have come and looked